Our home

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Nov 05, 2018

This company are rude and arrogant, BEWARE!!! they care nothing for customers I was told they cared nothing for me that their investors were paramount and as I had a loan they would take my home/farm I told them I would appeal to the banking ombudsman and was told they don't fall under them.. But I'm no fool the financial ombudsman got them for me they hit you with fees, fees, fees please BEWARE and don't deal with them that way you won't get burned...

Stay away you have been warned!

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 30, 2018

Loan sharks full stop. From the highest interest rates that they kept putting up all the way to taking money at the lower end. First time I've ever heard of a "bpay fee" and it was through this company. They will ramp up their prices form solicitor fees to made up fees like electronic file fee ect ect just to take your money, more than they are untitled to!! I cannot stress enough for people to stay away form this group, I think loan sharks is a term that does not even begin to describe how terrible this group is. I set up direct debit payments to avoid the made up "bpay fee" and they kept charging me a direct debit dishonor fee, I contacted my bank as La Trobe told me it was an error on their end, my bank sent me the documents and it said they kept trying to take the money out using the banks name instead of my name which I filled out on their form. They then would not refund me the direct debit dishonor fees sticking to the line "its your bank its not us". I got the conformation report in front of me!!!! Guys I would love it everyone steered clear of these guys so that they go under. The less of these institutions out there the better our economy and society will be as these type of companies are completely pillaging the average house hold. Just goes to show you how inaccurate and corrupt Money Magazine awards are as they have allegedly voted this group as the winner. How could they vote this company in when there are companies out thee offering no monthly fees, no annual charges and 2% interest less than La Trobe, and they do not have made up crap like "bpay fee" and electronic file fee ect. I could go on all day how terrible this company is, but you've been warned. And they will create accounts and write reviews on these online forums like [name removed] which is complete crap, don't fall for their marketing tactics guys it is them writing the review, you simply go online and look at other lending institutions to see how bad these guys really are, they charge you a lenders fee which is a % of the total loan, it is criminal and they need to be investigated ASAP!!!!

Bad choice to go with LaTrobe the RIP OFF!!!!

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 24, 2018

Since joining LaTrobe about a year & a half ago, which is my BIGGEST regret, interest rates increased before I can make the 1sr installment, not to mention the initial admin & loan fees (nearly had a stroke), then after that interest rates went up like 3 times within a year.
Oh & get this.....They even charge you for making regular loan payments, I need to save myself & refinance elsewhere ASAP!!!!
Extremely disappointed, I wouldn't recommend LaTrobe to my worst enemy.

2 Rate hikes in 1 year!!! Ridiculous loan shark policies should be investigated by ROYAL COMMISSION

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jun 18, 2018

I've had my loan with LaTrobe for just over a year. In that time they have jacked up my rates TWICE! The first time they did there was no notice so my weekly repayment was short and I had to pay fees to cover it. The second time they send me a letter saying that "due to increased lending costs" they have HAD to increase my rates. So now I'm paying over $800 a month extra thanks to LaTrobe's "increased lending costs"

I'm self-employed which is why I ended up with LaTrobe in the first place. Re-financing with a major and saving myself close to $1200 a month.

Legal criminals

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jun 06, 2018

Latrobe, What can I say, they present themselves as so efficient and professional and a leading company to deal with, as you can see they even have staff or brokers or new thrilled customers write glowing reviews about LaTrobe accepting their loan application when others wont. Glowing reviews the way LaTrobe want to be seen so that they can trap more people into their loan agreements, but let me tell you the truth from experience of what happens over time. (like the others on
this site have ...and glowing reviewing newcomers can't).

When I used LaTrobe, the late fees were defined as follows: "late payment fee: 5% p.a. calculated per calendar month on outstanding loan balance". When I asked the broker what that meant, he didn't know, I asked the solicitor, he rang them, but there was no one there to answer that question and no one ever rang back. What do you think that means on a million dollar loan? Do you think it means there will be a $50,000 dollar late fee? Well it does, broken down into monthly
payments, (5% of loan amount divided by 365 multiply by days of the month, 5% of $1,000,000 = $50,000 / 365 days in the year = 136.9863 x 31days = $4246.57 per 31 day month) and when do the late fees stop? When the 5% fee on
outstanding loan balance is paid of course, meaning when you have paid the $50,000 and guess what else it means? There will be a whole lot of other fees charged to your account, a matter of fact those fees will be more than $50,000 a year, that's on top of your monthly payments. So it will cost you more than $100,000 (a lot more) if you miss a payment. As others have said, "Why are these people still in business?" Well I know why because I complained to ASIC and the response was: "There is no requirement at law for the FSP to provide a working example to the consumer (whether verbally or in the loan agreement itself) to show how the fee is calculated". "The Late fee is not an unjust provision in the loan agreement nor is it unconscionable".

If there was such a law, a law for the FSP to provide a balance sheet showing all fees and charges to repossession if payments are not met, (especially after you sell your home financed by Latrobe to buy another home, exit fees include, call protection fee: $38,185.40, early repayment fee: $23,865.89. and there's more) Then NO ONE would use LaTrobe financial for a home loan.

LaTrobes whole legal structure is designed to trap you the borrower via an instructed broker (with no responsibility) and charge maximum rates and fees and sell your house and use all your equity to pay their charges and leave you with nothing. They should be shutdown. (after being made to compensate all their victims).

August 6th 2018 Update: Thank you Australian Product Review

I hope you don't print this, its a thankyou to you guys at Australian Product Review. Without you guys there has been no way of finding and contacting other victims of LaTrobe Financial, now we can. Since posting my review I have formed an association with another LaTrobe victim and they have found a few more. Soon we will be going to a press conference in Canberra to point out to the Banking Royal Commission that LaTrobe Financial is a company that needs to be examined and hopefully made responsible for the money it has stolen from its victims. If it wasn't for Australian Product Review we could not do that. THANK YOU so much.

Comments

LaTrobe Financial Services Official

We are extremely sorry to hear that you have had a disappointing experience with us and we take your comments seriously.
In order to address your concerns which you have raised, we would like ...
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Im sure you will all agree. La Trobe is very quick at applying arrears of any missed payments, fees & charges to accounts....but what La Trobe doesn’t tell you, is how these arrears are CALCULATED. For weeks now, I have requested them to provide me with the formula or an example to assist with having my statements recalculated, due to having been charged a default rate of 36% pa, instead of the contractual rate of 3%. La Trobe also inflated my loan, by taking a second default judgement on the debt, again another tactic of theirs to inflate my loan before taking possession, of my home & selling it....Ohhh La Trobe I forgot to mention to all your customers the fact that use also then just prior to taking possession, refused a Contract of Sale I sought, in an attempt to get myself out of it. $4531 shortfall of payout, when use had been charging me 36%, obtained a default judgement without effectively having it served, oh yea then to top it off, use ignored a court order, & applied an interest rate, with fees & charges you weren’t entitled to charge me for. I owe use nothing. All default judgements obtained by La Trobe need to be investigated by ASIC.

January 12th 2019 Update: Borrowers BEWARE

Late payment fees - ARREARS
Big, big question marks around arrears. How are these figures calculated by La Trobe...Has anyone ever been provided the formula to calculate these. Upon numerous request to this company for such, they fail to provide an answer. Time for the regulators to start asking some questions.

Comments

I advise everyone who has had an issue with La Trobe to file a submission with the Commission into Royal Banking Investigations that is currently happening. It’s not just the big banks that need lo...
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Avoid avoid avoid

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Apr 27, 2018

Ridiculous interest rate. Fees for everything and not cheap. Changed to one of the.big banks and our mortgage virtually halved. Sold into it by a broker. Be wary brokers obviously get good comms from them but you pay it.

Worst Company I've ever dealt with

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Apr 08, 2018

Where do I start never in my life have I ever encountered such an unorganized business.
My list is huge firstly we Applied for a loan on an investment property and a rulal property they gave us an indicitive offer of 80% of both homes.
We waited 4 weeks and each day told us your applications would be finalised tomorrow, tomorrow came still nothing another day came still nothing. One week after there tomorrow tomorrow they came back with it no we only lend up to 70% on hectres over 2 Omg seriously. They knew from the start that our purchasing property was over 2 hectares. They had the property address they sent valuers out.
I pulled the pin and went with another lender who in turn had my unconditional approval sorted in one week. Warning stay away from LA TROBE.

Please RUN AWAY from 'LotTroble'

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Apr 04, 2018

Their rates goes up to 7.44, and will overcharge you $1600 because they can not find your security doc and change the settlement time with your new bank. Another ridicules thing is they only give you maximum 1 hour to settle and do not notice you in advance. Then, you will be late and pay the late fees.

Comments

LaTrobe Financial Services Official

Dear Cody, We take these statements seriously, as this just does not sound like the service that we deliver. We would like to suggest that you contact us on 13 80 10 and speak directly with our Cu...
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Waits of time

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Mar 16, 2018

La Trobe is probably the worst loan brokers that I have ever delt with. My family and I put in a loan application and have done everything that has been asked of us to get it but they just keep coming up with stuff to make it so much harder than it should. So after all that we are told by La Trobe that we must wait another day until it can be finalised and that we could get the money for the house that we all so exited for. But no that was to hard. Everyday they would tell us that it will be another day and than those days became weeks and we have had enough. To this very day we are still waiting for it to be signed of by one person. DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!

Predators

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Feb 18, 2018

The amount of fees this company charge make it difficult to believe they are still allowed to be in operation. Fees range from upwards of $6000 for loan application costs to $1200 for late fees. Even though the company is gouging its customers in this fashion it still feels the need to charge $2 for customers to make a BPAY payment. The asset management department is filled with young and inexperienced agents whom seem to refuse to act compassionately to customers facing hardship.

All in all as a 'last chance saloon' lender, they are gouging customers whom have little alternative but to accept this criminality out of fear of losing their homes (to be sold at 35% of the value of course)

La Trobe Financial loan, waste your money

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Feb 12, 2018

I gave them 1 star ONLY BECAUSE I HAD TO, I would have preferred to give them NO STAR rating.
We attained a SMSF home loan through a broker who UNFORTUNATELY used this company in late 2015. since then the monthly payments (interest rates) have gone up 4 times, increasing the monthly payments by $159. On top of this they asked for our insurance certificate of currency each year and when they get that from us they charge us $50 to receive it plus they charge a $300 per year fee to have the loan. They also charge a monthly fee to the account on top of the outrageously high interest rate.
THEY ARE NOTHING BUT A RIP OFF!!!
no wonder we are looking to refinance elsewhere.

Fees

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Oct 21, 2017

We are wondering why we have been charge for Application fee of $6405.00
I have emailed to one of their staff, replied with the answer "Application fee"
My accountant was shocked to see our account and asked if we had loan with them before, we said no this is first time and it was not good after all. We think the interest rate is far too high even the interest rate has been down for some time...I've send email to "Financial services ombudsman" to see what they say. If they don't refunded half of the fee, perhaps we change banks !!

Worst decision ever

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 13, 2017

When refinancing, La trobe failed to bring discharge papers to settlement and even though anpay out figure was calculated, they still deducted money from the account.
After settlement was made, La trobe assured me accounts were closed, yet had deductions from my account 2 weeks in a row.
Requested for Settlement Statement after
Numerous e-mails and was very slow to respond to only give a 6 month settlement statement and not entirety of loan.
Very un professional and unorganized organization

Dishonest organisation. Very expensive mistake

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Aug 08, 2017

Borrowed from them in Feb last year at 6.29%. Today they are charging me 7.14% which thet say us the result of their increased costs of funding. In the meantime the RBA rate has fallen from 2% to 1.5% and the major banks are charging around 5.9% on investmrnt loans. Exit penalties for Latrobe are extreme so buyer beware on this one.

LOAN SHARKS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 03, 2017

Got a loan through a broker 3 years ago only to find out after that Latrobe SHARK financial services charged us 14K in entry fees just to get the loan. Charged 7.5% interest rate and even after asking every year for a reduction as we hadn't missed a payment and were 20K ahead they refused. Don't believe the add on TV that are award winners haha winner of the SHARK LOANS you mean. Asked for the title to be sent to a Land Title office to have something removed to be told their fees for posting it we about $800. You have been warned again STAY AWAY FROM THESE LOAN SHARKS

Late Fees are ridiculous. Continues Misleading and Deceptive Conduct..time to go to the regulators!

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Apr 07, 2017

I have just been hit for circa $4,000 late fee for being 12 days late! Works out to being charged1,705%p.a.. This is in stark contrast to my Statement which states a 6.6% p.a. borrowing rate! LaTrobe's weighted average cost of funds is circa 9.4% p.a.
I don't mind paying a reasonable late fee, but this late penalty and its application are way beyond the pale, likely illegal, and render LaTrobe's Statements misleading and deceptive. After seeing similar problems from others on Product Review, and getting the same dismissive reaction from some La Trobe staff I discussed with the Credit & Investments Ombudsman (ph 1 800 138 444) this morning. They are well aware of La Trobe's conduct on this issue, and have recommended lodging a formal complaint with them and also with ASIC, which all similarly aggrieved parties should do. A class action, such as successfully lodged against the Australian Banks also makes a whole lot of sense.

Comments

This matter was finally satisfactorily resolved after referral to the Credit and Investment Ombudsman. The fact I had to resort to this and achieved a reasonable resolution has done little to chang...
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Late payments fees are ridiculous !!

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Mar 24, 2017

would not recommend these guys to anyone ! No empathy for customers with first time late payment but a slap of $790 late payment fee! did not want to listen or negotiate the issue just advised I will be slapped with a late payment fee!!!!!!

Questions & Answers

How safe is it to invest with latrobe financial ?

Dear Lay, thank you for contacting us about our award-winning Investment Fund. We can confirm that we have been around for over 66 years. Our investment Fund has been around for over 20 years of that time. We can confirm that we have been judged Australia's Best Mortgage Fund by reputable finance journal Money magazine for the last 9 years in a row. We have been highly rated by Zenith, SQM Research and other rating agencies. We have over $2.5 billion funds under management. Please feel free to read our Product Disclosure Statement and more information on our website. www.latrobefinancial.com Please also do not hesitate to contact us on 13 80 10 to speak with one of our experienced and friendly investment team specialists. Kindest regards, La Trobe Financial Team.

LaTrobe Financial Services
replied on Sep 09, 2018

Is my money safe if I invest with your company

Dear George, thank you for contacting us about our award-winning Investment Fund. We can confirm that we have been around for over 66 years. Our investment Fund has been around for over 20 years of that time. We can confirm that we have been judged Australia's Best Mortgage Fund by reputable finance journal Money magazine for the last 9 years in a row. We have been highly rated by Zenith, SQM Research and other rating agencies. We have over $2.5 billion funds under management. Please feel free to read our Product Disclosure Statement and more information on our website. www.latrobefinancial.com Please also do not hesitate to contact us on 13 80 10 to speak with one of our experienced and friendly investment team specialists. Kindest regards, La Trobe Financial Team.

LaTrobe Financial Services
replied on Sep 09, 2018

Are La Trobe reliable from an investment point of view?

Hi Arty, We have had nothing to do with investment with them but based on how they rip people off with fees, interest and charges I am sure they would do something similar if you invest with them. I have that ASIC are fully aware of what they do so stay tuned to see what comes of that if anything.

They SAY they keep winning awards for their investments but I've slid heard hat while interest rates are higher their associated and hidden fees are exorbitant
Like the above poster I djnt have personal experience but a leopard does not change their spot.
Clearly from the reviews the font value their customers.